The present invention relates to a unit for forming groups of cigarettes.
In the tobacco industry, units for forming groups of cigarettes are known to comprise a cigarette hopper with at least one bottom outlet for the cigarettes; an output conveying device for feeding the groups of cigarettes along a given path; and a transfer device located between the bottom outlet of the hopper and the conveying device, and for withdrawing the cigarettes from the hopper and feeding them on to the conveying device.
Known transfer devices normally comprise a number of rotary drums, which are tangent to the bottom outlet of the hopper to withdraw the cigarettes successively from the outlet, are tangent to the conveying device to deposit the withdrawn cigarettes on to the device, and provide for feeding the cigarettes along a given supply path substantially tangent to both the bottom outlet of the hopper and the conveying device, and extending along part of the peripheral surfaces of the drums and through a succession of transfer stations where the drums are substantially tangent to one another to feed the cigarettes from one drum to another.
Known transfer devices of the above type involve several drawbacks, due, firstly, to the highly complex design and, hence, high production and maintenance cost of the device, and, secondly, to the amount of manipulation the cigarettes are subjected to along the supply path.